I actually hate beaches, for some reason.

Water is too salty, sand gets lodged in food (as well as every uncomfortable orifice and aperture of your body, no matter how tightly concealed), too many machos who think they run the beach…

Dunno. Might just be me.

I totally wanna go to a nude beach one day, though.

@Grisaille This is Pirate’s Cove on the central coast of California. Beautiful nude beach. the sand in the naughty parts is worth the visit!

@jonsblond Oh, man. That is gorgeous. I wouldn’t mind sand in my arse (other unfortunate areas as well) if I had a view like that.

But… I’m all the way in NYC. :[

I like The Long Beach, it’s big and lots of cute L.A guys in muscle shirts or no shirts at all ; )
Sorry don’t know how to post pictures :(

@jonsblond, I don’t know about you, but I think that this beach pwns all (including your rocky painful picture there. Hah!). That would definitely be one of my favourite beaches (despite the fact that I never went there [my family was planning to but the trip fell through. Argh.]).

& @Grisaille nude beaches?! Calm down!

(Apologies for double-posting)

Time to show off some vacation pics guys. This was from a trip a few years back to Tap Mun Island off Hong Kong. It was seriously windy and the view was magnificent.

And this one, though not exactly a favourite beach, was still pretty interesting to view at low tide. It was on a biology expedition to Tioman Island, off Malaysia. Sorry for the crappy size. It’s off facebook so meh.The low-tide wildlife was pretty cool though. I, with my friend, found a fire clam. Its tentacles were slightly thicker than the one in the pic AND it could swim.

This is also quite recent. Last year March in fact on a school trip to Krabi in Thailand. This is definitely my favourite beach of all time. It was a gorgeous cove. The water was so clear. So much marine life could be seen so near the beach, and the sand.. Oh the sand… It was so soft.. So white… And when you stepped into it in the water, your feet would sink an inch or two before stabilising.

What I would give to go back to that last beach…

El Capitan State Beach, CA

There are beautiful beaches up and down the coast of California. I am partial to the rugged cliffs and secluded hard-to-get-to beaches at Big Sur , and the beautiful beaches of up-scale Carmel. Locally, there is Leo Carillo State Beach, which just happens to be adjacent to my Dad’s condo in Malibu (note: enjoy all the photos on this link….the Malibu ones are at the bottom). San Diego has a couple of very nice clothing optional beaches, although its been a few years since I visited. But my favorite has to be the wide expanses of the beaches of Cabo San Lucas, at the tip of Baja California, in Mexico. See ya…..wtf

Wow. I’m touched that you thought of me! :)
I actually love the beach. It’s like my favourite place. I would so follow summer up and down the globe if I could. So pretty much every beach I’ve ever been to is my favourite, but unfortunately they’re not the most amazing ones in the state, sorry! And I don’t have many personal photos, I’m afraid, I hesitate in taking cameras to the beach in case they get sand in them and stuff. I’ll try and source the best pictures from the web though.

Let’s start with Wine Glass Bay You might have heard of it, it’s rather famous. I’ve only been there once when I was quite a bit younger but just the whole trek and everything you have to do to get there makes it so amazing and I will never forget it.

Next I’ll go with Hinsby Beach (sorry couldn’t find a better photo) in Taroona, just out of Hobart city. It’s not the most spectacular beach but probably the best in such close proximity of the city, and I’ve spent so much of my summer holidays there for the last few years cause it’s so easy to get to.

I spent a bit of my young childhood at Conningham so it holds nice memories for me, though once again not the most spectacular beach.

South East Cape is pretty amazing, though not your general hot summer swimming beach, pretty sure the water there comes straight from Antarctica. I think it’s a pretty famous surfing beach though, but I might be getting it mixed up with another one, I can’t remember. It’s one of my favourites because of a camp I went on in year 9, where we hiked there from Cockle Creek and back over two days. So much fun!

Really any beach on Bruny Island is worth visiting. There’s one I used to go all the time when I was a little kid. I remember clambering through all the pig weed to jump off the sand dunes. And my sister and I used to throw these little jelly like things at each other.

Fortescue Bay is another cold southern one where I’m sure the water comes straight from Antarctica but it’s more of a swimming beach than South East Cape and not bad in summer. I like it because once again I went there on school camps and it holds some good memories.

Bicheno is pretty damn nice, they get little fairy penguins there at night time and there’s like an island thing you can only walk to on a sand bar if it’s low tide.

Pirates Bay is nice, I don’t remember where it is exactly but I know I’ve been there haha.

And here are some pretty amazing ones in Tasmania that I am ashamedly yet to go to:
Bay of Fires
Chain of Lagoons
Beer Barrel Beach
Ocean Beach Strahan
There are more, I just can’t think of what they’re called.

Sorry for such a long answer, I couldn’t pick just one favourite beach if I tried. I hope I’ve enticed you to come to Tasmania more but our beaches don’t look nearly as nice as the ones whatthefluther has posted!
If you want I can show you more pictures of Tasmanian mountains and valleys and rivers and lakes and forests, we have more world renowned stuff like that than beaches haha.

I like beaches to take a stroll down and have a look at, maybe stop off at a beach bar for a cold beer but they’re no fun to hang out on for too long, it’s so much hard work constantly fighting against all that sand getting everywhere.

This was the last really nice beach I went to just a few weeks ago, Guardalavaca beach, Cuba

@shrubbery Oh man.. Tasmania looks beautiful…. I’m really tempted to place among the top of my to-go list for beautiful nature..

But what about UV radiation?

Since Australia is a huge island, there are beautiful beaches everywhere you go. I am a beach nut so I am in my glory. Down Victoria Way there is the Great Ocean Road where the beaches go on for miles and miles http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au/Brand.aspx?brandid=32&homepageid=5. There are too many to mention, but my very favorite is Rainbow Beach in Queensland. Still not too touristy, great waves, good fishing and if there are 3 other people there, it is crowded. Fraser Island is great too, http://www.rainbowbeach.info/

In USA, I have to say Del Ray Beach is great and for people watching South Beach is the best!

Great Question!

Crescent Head, NSW, Australia

Not much for beaches. Only one I remember thinking was cool was South Padre Island, TX. that was almost 25 years ago. I like inland water places, like rivers. People complain that rivers smell like dead fish, but then, those people are fools because rivers smell like mud and water, not dead fish. Rivers are my kind of water’s edge.

Some of my best memories come from time spent on the Mississippi River.

Cinnamon Bay, St. John Island, U.S. Virgin Islands. I’ve only been there once but it was beautiful. Great snorkeling too.

I spent much of my childhood exploring the caves and tidepools of Mendocino California. The Northern coast will always feel like home to
me.

Awesome question- this thread feels like a vacation!

Ipanema Beach. It’s in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

I’m paranoid of the ocean.

Sunova is my favorite beach.

I actually don’t like beaches. I love the ocean, but I prefer harbors or bays. Sand, baking in the sun, suntan lotion – no thank you.

Awhile back, there was a question posted about what do you do when you need time to yourself (to think/reflect/sort out your problems) and I had mentioned sitting on the beach with a cup o’ coffee and Bailey’s and checking out the sunrise. This particular beach is less than 100 feet away from place. In the summer, I’m down there almost every morning.

CT beach

We enjoyed the beaches in Daytona, FL, we spent a few amazing days in Key West, We loved to have a few evenings in South Beach, but of all the heavenly places Florida offers, the gulf coast really blew our minds. I have great memories of the Clearwater-St Pete area beaches. My favorite was Pass-a-Grille beach

The whole area is fantastic, and an afternoon at the beach is just the appetizer.

Big Sur is as beautiful and relaxing as anywhere I have been. I have been told this is where they filmed the famous kiss on the sand moment from “From Here To Eternity”.

Thanks for all the pictures everyone! @Dog, this thread does feel like a vacation.

Cancun with air conditioned sand that never gets hot, waters are rough on one end of Cancun, and perfectly calm on the other, depending on what you prefer. South Beach, FL…lots going on, volleyball, roller blading, restaurants, many Europeans and Latin Americans, 8th street area of the beach has a lot of topless. St. Johns, USVI at the Rock Resort, beautiful calm waters, very peaceful.

I have only been to beaches in Florida and do not have any pics, but compared to the pics I’ve seen from all of you, Florida didn’t compare. So many beautiful places I have never seen. Thanks for sharing, @jonsblond is right, I feel like i’ve been on a vacation.

Carolina Beach, Myrtle Beach…basically any beach in North Carolina or close by!

@ShanEnri Welcome to Fluther!

thank you jonsblond!

I’d say the Olympic National Park Beaches in WA were an awesome time. Tranquility and mesmerizing beauty Here is a taste-

http://www.terragalleria.com/photos/?keyword=olympic-national-park-beaches

Also, you might enjoy “Hippie Hollow” on Lake Travis, in Austin, Texas. It may not be the most beautiful beach in the world, but it’s pretty nice, and it’s “clothing optional” if you’re into that. A nice relaxed atmosphere…. The only problem is the gawkers that come by in boats sometimes, but you can pretty much ignore them.

I’m with @cheebdragon – went snorkeling once…I couldn’t let go of the piece of wood that was connecting me and the small boat that brought me (and my family) to this certain snorkeling/diving area.

Wakegan beach in Illinois!!! =]
I love it!!

I like the beaches of the Scottish islands. Eigg comes to mind, though the water is pretty cold. The beach at Gulf Shores in Alabama is beautiful, miles and miles of sugary white sand and it is lovely and warm. But the condominiums! They stretch all the way along the beach and ruin it.